Another year has been and gone, so it’s time for us to reflect back to celebrate the good stuff the team has accomplished. It was the year of wonderful experiences—appearing on TV, meeting legends, and spending sleepless nights with the team working on projects. Fetch your sentimental helmet, strap in and let’s go on a magical trip way back to the beginning of the year.

Highlights: Television, podcasts, and working together
On a mild afternoon in February, JROCK NEWS appeared on the national TV channel, NHK that was broadcasted in Japan. We were invited to be featured on the prestigious Japanese music program J-MELO to talk about the Jrock culture in Europe and what we represented. The TV crew took over the London office to film and it was also my first time on national television. It would be a lie if I told you that I didn’t feel under pressure, but luckily sizergyia was on hand to provide the much-needed support. Would you be surprised if I told you that it took around 30 takes for the 10-minute clip?
Starting with such an amazing opportunity, this year the team has been finding new ways to help you keep up to date with all the music news! I hope you have listened to the monthly podcasts with Mazo, NBT, sizergyia, and Nexus which we currently have 10 episodes of. On the note of monthly updates, I’d like to thank Midnight XII for the Release Schedule that comes out without fail.
Most recently, we announced a partnership between Japanese magazine Club Zy. and JROCK NEWS to better promote visual kei to a global audience. I have always been an admirer of visual rock magazines since I first got into Jrock—I’m sure many of the older fans can relate to this— so to have this opportunity happen after three years since this site first started, I am incredibly proud of this amazing feat by the team.
Interviews of 2018
2018 has proved to be another fruitful year for exclusive interviews, starting off with the legendary founding fathers of visual kei, Seiichi Hoshiko. His earnest and in-depth talk which split into part one and part two showed the work behind the foundation he laid down for the culture we know now.
We’ve been very privileged to have spoken to samurai guitarist MIYAVI when he visited London on this world tour, gothic lolita fashion pioneer and Moi dix Moi’s guitarist, Mana about his fashion line Moi-même-Moitié and also legendary guitarist god HOTEI.
Special mention to the interview with ACME where we covered bassist RIKITO’s return, [ALEXANDROS] regarding their Brooklyn inspired album, Rides in ReVellion at FEST FES 2018 and DEADLIFT LOLITA after their performance at HYPER JAPAN. Please check out our collection of exclusive articles this year as we’ve interviewed so many amazing artists, photographed and reported on many live shows.
Popular posts of 2018
So what did you guys like this year? It looks like you all loved games and anime related music. The leading bands including the GazettE, X Japan, Mejibray are rated highly by you, the readers!
- Top 3 best mobile rhythm games (Android and iOS)
- “Falling” from the GazettE’s album “NINTH” is truly a wild ride
- The epic songs of Dragon Ball Super
- X JAPAN and HYDE collaborate on “Red Swan”, Attack on Titan opening theme
- MEJIBRAY’s Tsuzuku and Koichi terminate contract with management, band’s future in the air
- the GazettE announces World Tour 2019 “THE NINTH”
- UVERworld’s “ODD FUTURE” to be opening theme for third season of “My Hero Academia”
- MIYAVI beats Ichigo’s ass effortlessly in new BLEACH trailer
- Mana: History of the pioneering Gothic Lolita guitarist
- Interview: Mana talks future of lolita fashion
Arigathanks gozaimuch
I’d like to take a moment to thank all the editors, writers, photographers, and translators for their hard work and to let them know how grateful I am to have each and every one of them on JROCK NEWS team. Not only do they write and work on this site purely from our love of music, but go out of their way report on shows and interview artists in the outside world. This amount of work requires so much unseen time, pain and effort behind the scenes, so please take a moment to thank the team for their contribution this year in the comments below if you have enjoyed the articles we have published this year.
Special thanks to NHK Japan, V STAR PROMOTION, Moi-même-Moitié, Kinetic Vibe, Jrock Chibi, MMT, and all bands and their management teams for their help and support this year.
As always, please continue to look after us in 2019.
Much love,
Edoh